Share this image

Dairy Farm

View Gallery

From left: Roy Coltrane, wife Margaret, son Branson, and daughter-in-law Kay at Sunday dinner together at the farm in Pleasant Garden, North Carolina. The one-story farmhouse the Coltrane siblings grew up in was moved across the road to this location using logs and mules. Bridgette Auger / Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Roy Coltrane, 97, says not being too set in your ways is what has kept he and his wife, Margaret, 91, happily married for over 70 years. Bridgette Auger / Special to the Christian Science Monitor

After switching from tobacco farming to the dairy business in 1956, the Coltrane family has expanded their farm to over 1000 cows. Bridgette Auger / Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Branson Coltrane feeds the calves a bottle of milk at dawn everyday. Bridgette Auger / Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Ethel Coltrane Whitaker with a family Bible on her lap, recounts the sacrifices made by her siblings on the family farm after their parents died. Bridgette Auger / Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Cecil Coltrane waits out a rainstorm on his four-wheel-drive. Bridgette Auger / Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Since taking over from his father, Branson Coltrane expanded the family farm from 100 acres to 800 acres. Bridgette Auger / Special to the Christian Science Monitor

The farm has been in the family for more than 200 years. Bridgette Auger / Special to the Christian Science Monitor